Amedeo Avogadro

Most famous for pioneering work in the world of chemistry, leading to Avogadro's law, Amedeo Avogrado was born and died in the city of Turin, Italy. He began his studies in the law field, but also pursued his personal interests in the natural sciences. After practicing law for several years, he went on to teach natural sciences in a high school near his home town. During this time, he also branched out and began the series of experiments and theories that would in time lead to Avogadro's law. These were all published throughout his teaching career, and throughout the rest of his lifetime.

This law states that if there are equal volumes of gas existing under equal temperatures and pressure conditions, the gas volumes will then contain correspondingly equal numbers of molecules. That is under the assumption that a molecule's weight will be proportional to a gas's density. Another major contribution that Amedeo Avogadro made to the world of chemistry was his help in clearing up existing confusion about the differences in molecules and atoms. He suggested that although matter is made up of smaller units, or molecules, those molecules could then be broken down into even smaller units, known as atoms today. That was an idea that had not yet been fully realized in the current state of chemistry.

After the publication of Avogadro's law and other theories surrounding these chemical principles, Amedeo Avogadro was promoted to first chair of mathematical physics at Turin University. During his tenure there, he engaged in a number of experiments that further broke down the principles of the particles that make up matter in the world around us, and published a four-volume work detailing all of this information in 1841. The number of molecules that make up one mole, or one gram of weight in a molecule, was called Avogadro's number or Avogadro's consultant, as a tribute to the man who did so much for the study of numbers and particles.

Politically, Amedeo Avogadro was rumored to have helped sponsor and help a group of Sardinians who were in the process of planning a revolution. He was allegedly removed from his position at Turn University because of this, although historical accounts differ in just how much of a role he actually played in this activity. Avogadro was eventually reinstated to his former position at the university, and also worked as a member of the Royal Superior Council on Public Instruction. His name remains most synonymous, however, with the law that he helped pioneer.